By fall, the Rock Prairie Norwegian settlement was established, consisting of five homesteads: Gravdal, Hallan, Odegarden, Lars Skavlem, and Gullik Halvorsen Blakstad (Skavlem); Gisle Hallan had taken possession of his new home in Sec. 6, Town of Beloit, and Gullick Halvorsen Blackstad (Skavlem) located on Sec. 28 during the spring and summer.

The evidence

• “Three men and three days saw the first house finished. In this they lived during the summer and fall, 1840, when they moved into a more substantial building. Gisle Hallan had also taken possession of his new home in Sec. 6, Town of Beloit. Early in the spring and during the summer Gullick Halvorsen, Blackstad (Skavlem) located on Sec. 28, in the same town; so that by fall, 1840, we have the Rock Prairie settlement well established, consisting of five homesteads, viz. : Gravdal, Hallan Odegarden, Lars Skavlem and Gullik Halvorsen Blakstad (Skavlem), and it is safe to say that each place besides sheltering its own, was taxed to its utmost capacity in giving shelter to new comers. Each succeeding year brought rapidly increasing additions to both settlements, and by '43 the great wave of Norwegian immigration”

  1908-brown-rock-county/18-scandinavians.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 460 / book p. 426

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources